In Conversation with 

Skiesfalling

October 2006

A little background: 

Saluations to Sarah from Novueller and 

One Umbrella for her unknown help with 

this interview.

The beauty of ‘Setting Sun’ sometimes is the 

occasional time when bands /acts contact you to 

review their releases or for interviews 

Because they have ran interviews you have done 

With friends of theirs or by chance.

Take the case with the excellent ‘Skiesfalling’ 

I certainly had never heard of them before, but 

Blake from the band contacted me asking me to 

Review their debut EP, which I had a listen 

And really enjoyed them certainly influences like 

Both Eno and Sonic Youth in their out-look as well 

As picking up silimarities with various other acts 

Interviewed previously in ‘Setting Sun’ for 

Example Remora, July Skies etc.

A natural choice for a interview with ‘Setting Sun’.

Impressed, I contacted Blake from the band

And the rest is history as I like to say.

For more information – contact the band at:

www.sonicsoundwave.com

Cheers to all involved in the interview.

AEN 

Setting Sun: 

How are things and what is happening at the moment?

Blake:

Things are going great! Recently we've been playing a 

lot shows around town with some great local 

Austin, TX bands. 

We've also had our music featured in the 

documentary "Manufacturing of Fast Food Nation" which is a 

doc about Richard Linklater's latest film soon 

to be released "Fast Food Nation". 

Also we've just added a 2nd guitarist 

(Douglas Ferguson) who is a great player

and fits our music and ideas 

very well.

Setting Sun: 

Can you next tell us a little bit about the history of 

skiesfalling – i.e who fired the starting pistol etc? 

Blake:

Well this has been a long going evolution actually 

starting back all the way in 1999 when 

Justin Sweatt (our drummer) joined a 

previous band of mine called Bella. 

That lasted for 2 years and then things 

happened and we all went our separate 

ways, some moving, children, and 

some staying in 

Austin etc... 

Around 2003 I made a phone call 

to Zach Hennard (Bass) a friend 

from around town to see what 

he was up to musically and 

we started playing. 

We played with many different players on 

and off including Aaron Grimaudo (Synth) 

and then I had a child of my own 

and things went to the wayside for 

a few years. 

In the spring of 2005 

things started to really come together.

Justin moved back to town and 

Zach, Aaron and I had been playing pretty 

regularly since the beginning of the year and 

Justin joined us and brought some really 

needed rhythmical continuity to our 

sound. 

So we've been a settled group 

really since about March 2005. So 

I guess to answer your question, I 

fired the starting pistol and hope it 

was the last time as I love the current 

band and creating music together has never 

been more fun and surprisingly, actually easy 

with this synergy.

Setting Sun:

What are your influences and what have 

you been listening to recently? 

Justin: 

Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, Hanadensha, 

Black Dice, Animal Collective, 

the usual stuff.............

Blake: 

All that Justin mentioned, plus I've really 

been enjoying recent releases by 

Juana Molina and Serena Maneesh and 

the more usual suspects like Can, Neu!, 

Boredoms, OOIOO and the occasional 

Lips and Surfers when I'm feeling rowdy.

Setting Sun: 

I have been listening to a fair bit of your 

debut (?) EP ‘EXPEP 1- Mindbreaths’ and 

found it quite a mind bending experience 

in places, can you tell us a little bit about 

the sessions for this EP in particular ‘Redwall’ 

which was probably my favourite track for the EP.  

Blake: 

Well the idea for this cd was actually a post 

conception and yes this is our debut release. 

We record all of our practices because we 

write out of our improv sessions which 

really bring fresh ideas out and probably 

consists of about 50% of the songs we write, 

starting from an improv and then refining 

into a written song. So we had all of this 

material and some of it just came out really 

great, and to be honest I'm not sure we can 

reproduce it exactly the same again in a 

written sense. So we decided to master and 

release some of the finer moments of our recorded 

improv session from our space. 

We actually have enough material to probably 

release 2 more of these down the road at some point. 

One thing that also makes this recording unique is it 

generally consists of 2-3 of us instead of the full

 band and also without drums. 

So I like this essence because it reminded me of 

some of Sonic Youth's experimental SYR series 

stuff and also some of Eno's ambient side. 

We will however, try to write into songs both 'Redwall' 

and 'Sun Ra Set'e' for live performance just because 

I love those songs too much. 

'Redwall' will be a bit different and more intense as 

we will have some drums and a full band for the 

newer version.

Setting Sun: 

From reading your website, it is also interesting to 

note that your music has been featured in a 

number of independent movies and also 

Richard Linklater's latest film effort 'Fast Food Nation'. 

How did this come about getting music featured in 

Mr Linklater’s music (Love some of his films for example 

Scanner Darkly and Before Sunset for example)?

Blake: 

Well it's actually a documentary about the making of 

the film that will accompany the feature film on the 

dvd release. 

The producers also plan to use it on television in Europe 

and maybe the US on a channel like IFC or Sundance to 

help promote the film since the doc was done very well in 

creating intrigue versus being a boring factual element. 

Just about all of Skiesfalling musical ventures relating 

to film come down to one guy, Kevin Ford, whom I 

met a couple years back in a pretty cosmic fashion. 

We've been great friends since and we're both kind of 

on the same plane, hopeful artists with some good things 

happening, and we compliment each other's styles very well. 

So we give him music and he uses it. We're helping him 

move forward as an independant film artist and he's helping 

us move forward as musicians working our way into the film 

industry. 

He has some great films and you can check them out his

 website- mo-freek.com

Setting Sun: 

Do you play concerts? If so, how do they compare to your 

recordings or if not how would you like to imagine 

they would perform?  

Justin: 

Yes and they are way more energetic and entirely 

different from the one EP that we have released.  

The shows are powerful rallies to the Sun, with high 

volume, high voltage, and seriously fun.

Blake:

Sonic blasts, blissful, ecstatic, euphoria, cerebral 

manifestations, sometimes melancholy yet hopeful, 

life!, deep in the mind real life, exploring and venturing 

all parts of the human mind and human emotional landscape, 

truly psychedelic music in the purest sense.

Setting Sun: 

What is the inspiration behind your name ‘Skiesfalling’ 

which I love as a name?  

Blake: 

Well it all evolved out of the blue one day 

which is the story of my life, sponteneaity and moving 

forward with the paths in front of you and moving with 

them as they change. I was riding my bike to work one day 

and for some reason that saying came to my mind 

"The sky is falling the sky is falling", aside from the silly 

story it came from I was like, this is a really cool 

concept in my mind. To me the concept meant 

more of, if the sky is falling, then our concept 

of everything we thought we knew and understood 

and can rely on is basically out the door, gone! It's all 

flipped upside down and the fear of the unknown comes 

to play, yet the newness that it brings and the unknown 

can sometimes be the most beautiful thing, the most 

beautiful new beginning of consciousness..... 

So I really liked the name and played around with it a bit more 

until it became Skiesfalling. 

I liked it better, it was more unique, and even more weird 

considering, what's up with multiple skies...we only have 

one sky, but there are more out there somewhere. So yeah, 

shaking up the universe, and the mind, that's what we're about.

Setting Sun:

What’s next for you all? Do you have any more releases 

planned – any gigs etc? 

Justin: 

Several gigs and work on a full length. Probably 

put out some more EPs.

Blake: 

Everything, but first and foremost recording a full length, 

continuing to write new material, many more 

experimental eps, soundtrack stuff, plenty of shows, 

you name it, we're busy!

Setting Sun: 

Anyway, a few questions to start winding down with, 

firstly what would be your dream job if you were not rock 

and roll stars?  

Justin: 

Park Ranger at the Davis Mountains National Park

Blake: 

Well we aren't rock stars yet so being successful 

enough to be creative with music fulltime is my dream job! 

I could really dig working at a National park too, 

although I would maybe pick Hawaii. 

Getting to travel and review other music would be 

pretty cool too. I think I have pretty good taste :) 

Or experimenting with hallucinogens under my control 

but with the study of science going on. They are very powerful 

and important to the future of the human landscape.

Setting Sun:

Where are you all from? What’s the music scene like 

where you are from? Have you seen any good gigs recently?  

Justin: 

I'm from Midland, TX originally and the music scene 

there was one of a total DIY nature and it still is.  

I will say that it's branched out quite a bit from 

your standard indie/punk rock from when I 

was around and young.  

Now there is some experimental shows there, 

which is a bit bizarre.  Orthrelm and Zombi 

played there and I would have killed for 

something like that when I was 15.  They 

have also started to get bigger shows like 

Modest Mouse playing in near by Odessa 

which is kind of cool as well.  

Of course they've always had some big shows 

at the Coliseum like Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins,

 and stuff like that.  There's only a hand full of 

kids that do music around there but they usually 

band together and move somewhere and wind 

up being really good and sometimes famous.  

I do have to mention though that Death Metal 

is still the biggest thing there, which isn't a 

bad thing if you ask me.

I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the music scene 

here though because I don't feel like I hang out with 

people all that much.  I know there are a ton of signed 

great bands from the city so I'm going to say it's healthy.  

It would have to be with all of the festivals we have 

around here selling out of tickets almost every time.

Best shows I've seen so far this year would have to 

be: Shellac/The New Year/Kook Keith/Genghis Tron/One Umbrella/Psychic Ills/Racebannon/Zombi/Animal Collective/Wolf Eyes/Yellow 

Swans/Prurient/Junior Boys/Trail of Dead/The Black/and a ton of others.......

Blake: 

I'm from Ft Worth, TX. Fortunately there were a couple of clubs 

that made the music scene pretty cool when I was growing 

up called Madhatters and the Engine Room. I saw some

 great indie bands there including Bedhead, Don Caballero,

 Mousetrap, June of 44, Blonde Redhead, 

Chalk Circle, and the Toadies before they were

 a commercial success which was actually very cool 

at a small club and lots of fun.

Sonic Youth is always a good show which 

I saw this year...Flaming Lips and 

Mogwai at SXSW always good..

.The New Year was an excellent show as well, 

and I'll be seeing Juana Molina tonight.

Setting Sun:

What would you be like to be doing when you are 60? 

Justin: 

Playing drums and still freaking out like crazy 

and hopefully still touring and performing 

with this band as well as the various side 

projects I do.

Blake: 

Here, here, cheers to that! and hopefully still hiking up huge 

mountains to find serenity....and you know what I 

mean by serenity right ;)

Setting Sun: 

Lastly, What will you be doing when you are 60? 

Justin: 

I have no idea, I fear thinking that far 

ahead.  Grumpy.

Blake: 

All of the above mentioned hopefully along with tons of 

traveling and watching my son blow away this planet 

as he's already a natural drummer and loves music 

like the Boredoms, Sun Ra, and Sonic Youth.

Skiesfalling

www.sonicsoundwave.com